


October

by Steveuschrist



Series: John and His Bat [14]
Category: Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game)
Genre: Bruce Wayne has Feelings, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Young Bruce was a mad lad, halloween fluff, spooky season
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 14:38:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16477433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steveuschrist/pseuds/Steveuschrist
Summary: John discovers that Bruce really loves Halloween.





	October

Waking up on the first day of October was no new concept for John to master. A small amount of excitement always hit him when it was a new month, because it always meant that he’d gotten one month closer to getting out of Arkham. 

Now that he was out, he didn’t have that mental counter in his head, but he was looking forward to the holiday season. He could hardly imagine what Thanksgiving dinner looked like in the Wayne household, and he didn’t even bother to think about Christmas. 

John and Bruce had developed very similar internal clocks, and usually woke up within a few minutes of each other. Therefore, John wasn’t surprised when Bruce stirred after he’d only been awake for a few minutes himself. He was sitting up in bed, covers pulled up to his chin, reading an article on his phone. He reached over and petted Bruce’s bedhead, grinning at him. “Morning!” 

Bruce sighed sleepily, turning over after a few seconds. “Mmh, hey, hon.” He rubbed his eyes, and after pausing suddenly, he looked back up at John. “Wait.. what day is it?”

John tilted his head, checking the date on his phone. “Uh, October 1st. Why? You have pl-”

The green-haired man was promptly cut off as Bruce sat up, quickly getting out of bed. “October 1st? You’re sure?”

John blinked. “Er… yes. My phone says so. Bruce..” The older man was pulling on real clothes, and John was starting to worry. “Bruce, uh, babe?” 

“What time is it?” Bruce grabbed his phone, looking at the clock. “It’s almost ten? Oh, god, we’re already behind schedule.” 

He was suddenly jogging to the door, and he threw it open, stepping into the hallway. “ALFRED! You were supposed to get me up hours ago!” 

John’s head was spinning, and he walked over to join Bruce, hearing Alfred yell something back to him. 

“It doesn’t matter that we got back at 3, you know what day it is!” 

John cleared his throat. “Uh, Bruce. Babe. Baby. Honey. Honey Bunches of Oats.” 

At the final name, Bruce looked over at him, realization hitting him. “Oh. John, hi.” 

John let out a soft sigh, relieved to have Bruce’s attention. “Hey, uh.. what exactly is going on?” 

“It’s October 1st. It’s the start of Halloween. Alfred was supposed to get me up at six, so now I’ve lost 4 hours of decorating time.” As Bruce spoke, he began to talk faster and faster, in a way John had never seen him before. “I have to do the whole place today, I have to order giant candy bars today, I have to help Alfred make a bunch of cupcakes today-”

John’s head spun again, and he finally realized that this is how Bruce must’ve felt when the two of them talked. He reached out, placing his hands on Bruce’s shoulders, which cut him off. “Bruce. Wayne.” 

“Uh.. yes?”

“It’s October 1st. Not October 31st.” 

Bruce nodded, and John saw something in Bruce’s eyes that he rarely saw.. Excitement? “Right. Which is why we start everything now. So we have plenty of time and everything is up for the entirety of Halloween.” 

“I.. thought Halloween was the 31st.” 

“The holiday is.” 

John’s brows furrowed together. “Wait.. you celebrate Halloween for the entire month of October?” 

Bruce crossed his arms, and John slipped his hands off of his shoulders. “John. Do I look like an amatuer to you?” 

“Er..” John looked him up and down. “I.. I don’t think so.” 

“Good, because I’m a pro. A Halloween pro. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years.” 

A smile crossed John’s face and he giggled into his hand. “That’s.. really adorable, Bruce. I had no idea that you liked it so much!” 

“Well, I don’t exactly advertise it.” 

***

John spent most of the day following Bruce around and keeping him company as he put up decorations on the outside of the manor. He insisted that he help Bruce with everything, but Bruce turned down his help every time. 

After a few hours they took a break, and Alfred was making cupcakes. Bruce and John sat together, drinking warm tea. John stirred his after adding more sugar, then glanced at Bruce. “You know, you can just tell me if you think I’ll put up the decorations wrong. I’ve never done the whole ‘Halloween’ thing before.” 

Alfred stopped his movements for the briefest of moments, and Bruce looked down into his mug for a moment, practically staring into his tea’s soul. “It’s just.. really important to me, John.” 

John nodded. “I think I understand. I’ve never seen you so happy before.” 

After going back outside, Bruce told John a few stories from when he was kid. John had almost never heard of childhood stories from Bruce, mostly Alfred told him when he asked. 

“Wait, so you were a pirate?”

“Yeah. Begged Lucius to make me a real sword.” 

“And a ninja?”

“That, too. And Link from Zelda.” 

John grinned at him. “No, way!” 

“Yeah, that was..” Bruce paused in hanging the fake cobwebs on the bushes. “..right after my parents.. That was the year that I decided that I wasn’t going to let what happened happen again.” Bruce looked over at him. “That’s the year that I asked Alfred to teach me how to fight.”

John rubbed his hands together. “Father and son bonding time by pretending to beat each other up- nice!” 

Bruce managed a chuckle. “Maybe. We were as close as we’d ever been at that point. I’d had so many nightmares. Alfred was my only real family at that time and I realized I wanted to protect him, too. So after Halloween that year, when I was pulling off my costume.. That’s when I promised that I would become stronger. I told myself I was going to train and I was going to protect people.” 

“Ha, our very own superhero origin story!” John grinned. 

“..I would stand on the banister, you know.” 

John blinked. “Er.. what?”

“The banister for the stairs in the entrance hall? I used to stand on it. For balance training.” 

“You what?!” John’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding!” 

Bruce smirked at him. “When I got into high school I started standing on the banister at the top of the stairs.” 

“Bruce Wayne!” John clapped his hand to his forehead, a small grin crossing his face. “I don’t believe you! You’re lying!” 

The older man shrugged. “I wouldn’t lie to you, or lie to scare you like that. And the training was really effective, by the way. Did that for a couple minutes every day and I was a balance pro by 17.” 

“You’re so weird. I love you.” 

*** 

Bruce was happy, actually happy, and John figured he had some pretty good memories associated with October and Halloween. Maybe he and his mom did something nice together. 

A couple weeks later, John woke up and entered the kitchen to find a series of boxes there. He looked around, and even inspected the boxes themselves, before calling out to Bruce. It wasn’t long before his dark knight in shining armor appeared in the kitchen. 

“What do the boxes have in them?” John asked, and Bruce cleared his throat. 

“Candy bars. For the 31st.” Bruce answered simply. It was not simple. 

“There’s a lot of boxes!” John said, counting at least 4, maybe 5. “You get a lot of kids coming up here? So far out of the city?”

“Well, they’re the king-sized bars, so not a lot can fit in one box.” Bruce replied, walking over to the table. “And we do get a fair amount of kids. People have driven out here ever since I came back to Gotham and first gave out the giant bars. I give them out to anyone who comes to the door. Luckily the media doesn’t care too much about reporting about Halloween, but kids tell their friends, their friends tell their friends, etc. And it's just… nice. Some of the costumes are super cool, especially the homemade ones.” 

John smiled at him, seeing that glint of excitement in his eyes. “How many Batmans do you get?” 

Bruce looked over at him. “Quite a number, sometimes a whole Batfamily. You know how many kids think that I have a direct connection with Batman because I’m a prominent figure in Gotham? Some will ask if I know if he’s trick-or-treating.” 

John giggled. “Aw, that’s so cute!” 

“Yeah. ..I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Jokers this year. Some of Tiffany’s friends have younger siblings that really like Batman and Joker.” 

“Who doesn’t! They kick ass and pull up the roots of corruption!” 

***

Finally, it was the night of October 31st. 

Bruce and John parked themselves at the entrance to the manor, bowl of king-sized chocolate bars right next to them. They pulled up chairs and settled into them. Bruce mentioned that usually in the last half an hour when people were starting to finish up was when most people came, but he wanted to be prepared for the entire two hours. 

John was eating one of the bars when the doorbell rang, and Bruce answered it. He came up behind Bruce, smiling at the two kids. 

“Trick or treat!” One was a werewolf, the other was a mummy. They looked to be about five or six.

Bruce made a slight jumping motion, putting his hand up to his chest. “Gosh, you guys scared me!” The kids giggled, and both picked out a candy bar. 

“Get one for both of your folks.” He said, gesturing to the young couple that was leaning against the car out in the driveway. The kids nodded and picked two things for their parents, then ran back to them, shouting a thank you to Bruce. 

Bruce shut the door and John gave him a golf clap. “Bravo, Mr. Wayne!” 

“Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here for the next.. 110 minutes.” 

The night continued, Bruce commenting on kids’ costumes and letting them having the giant candy bars. A few kids did come dressed as Batman, and older kids waved or said hi to John. 

“It’s so weird to be called ‘Mr. Doe’.” John said, sitting back down in the chair about an hour and a half in. “Like, when people call me that.. I’m usually in trouble. It’s so formal.” 

“Most adults are addressed by kids with their title and last name.” Bruce replied. “They do it for me.” 

“Yeah, but you’re you. I don’t know, it just feels weird.” 

They got a few more trick-or-treaters, now mostly teenagers, and just when Bruce was commenting on how they were probably done for the night, the doorbell rang one last time. 

“I’ll get it! These’ll probably be the last ones!” John said, hopping up and grabbing the bowl. He opened the door. 

And Batman and Joker were on the other side. “Trick or treat!”

John’s look of shock turned to one of glee. Upon closer inspection and by their voices, he could tell they were likely young women, probably in high school, or even college. One had bright green hair and white face paint on. She’d painted her lips a dark red, and she was wearing a green shirt, purple pants, and a purple jacket. Oh, John really appreciated the details. 

Her companion was dressed in all black, with a cowl covering her face. She even had a black cape on, with gloves and what John was pretty sure was a black leather jacket. 

“Holy cow! Bruce, I think there’s two vigilantes on our doorstep!” John said, and Bruce was by his side. Bruce was much better at hiding his happiness than John, but the latter could tell that he was pleased. 

“You guys look really good! Fans of Batman and Joker?”

Joker nodded. “They’ve helped the city so much. They step up when the police can’t.” 

“And it’s nice to know that Batman isn’t alone.” Batman said, shrugging their shoulders. 

John held out the bowl. “Take two, you guys have earned it!” 

The two took their candy, and after smiling at the two men they headed down the steps. Once they reached the bottom, and right before John closed the door, he saw Joker reach over and take Batman’s hand. 

Bruce and John waited at the door for a couple more minutes for an stragglers, but after fifteen minutes none came.

“What’re you gonna do with the candy?” John asked, looking at the boxes. 

Bruce shrugged. “Keep some, bring some into work, give the rest out to people who aren’t lucky enough to be able to afford any. I do it every year.” 

John set down the bowl and pecked Bruce’s lips, cupping his face. “You’re a good man, buddy.” 

Bruce gave him a small smile, turning to press a kiss to John’s palm. “Come on, I want a taste of the sweetest candy in the world.” 

“Hm? And what’s that?” 

After being picked up and kissed by his love, John quickly got his answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this in a couple hours yesterday when I realized I had time to bang out a quick one. (･ω･)b Happy Halloween, guys!


End file.
